While this wasn’t my first time trying to make environmentally conscious decisions, broadcasting my intentions to my family held me accountable in a way that I have never been before. One reason that people post pictures on social media showing off workout progress is to invite the pressure of letting down onlookers to force themselves to take their initiative more seriously. By letting my family know what I was doing for this class and trying to rally the household I was able to take sustainability on a household level more seriously.
To limit water usage, I started by taking my bad habit of leaving a faucet running while washing hands seriously. I wash my hands about 10 times a day for an average of 12 seconds, this effectively cut 2 minutes off water usage, or 2 gallons at an assumption of a gallon a minute. Showers are a guilty pleasure of mine, so cutting my long shower down by 10 minutes to a conservative length saves a whopping 20 gallons a day. I reminded my family constantly of their own usage. Twice in the past few days, I pointed out that the volume of water being used to rinse fruit could be turned down. Even though the water was only on for a short duration, the nozzle was fully open when it didn’t need to be. Cutting it back in half produced enough of a flow to achieve the purpose.
In terms of food, we were able to cut back a bit on what we ended up throwing in the trash. To do this we simply relied more on leftovers, repurposing the food we already bought instead of buying more. We were able to recycle a meal about every other day, which if continued will save us monetarily at least $30 a week. To cut down on what we were throwing out, I put a bin by our kitchen back door that we fill with food scraps to be brought to a compost pile I placed out back. Not everything is compostable, so I was careful to weed out processed foods, meats, and dairy products. Those continued to go in the trash. Composting is a long process, but the goal is by next year to have rich soil to be able to use in a garden for veggies, further reducing our need to buy at a store. We’ve also worked at being more creative with what is already in the cabinet and the freezer. Today, a crockpot meal used up a frozen roast, some seasoning packs and potatoes and carrots that were starting to get old in the refrigerator.
To cut back on electricity, I informed on standby electric loss from leaving things plugged in. One example is the coffee maker. It has a built-in clock and programmable timer, which we don’t use. There is no need to keep it plugged in when not in use. Also, we have multiple iPhone and iPad chargers, since there are 7 of those devices in our household. Even though keeping each charger plugged in for a full year would only consume the equivalent of about $3.50/year, I though it important to think about what is really necessary. To consolidate, I installed a charging hub in a central location (the kitchen). When I looked into it, I also learned that charging a phone overnight – longer than necessary – also causes a shorter life span for the battery. Centralizing a charging hub away from the bedrooms therefore had multiple benefits.
Recycling presents a continual challenge. The volume of mail and paper board products surprised me, once I started to focus on. Junk mail often gets thrown in the trash. Pulling envelopes, unwanted mail and box containers out of the trash and putting it aside to recycle accumulated almost a full additional grocery bag containing 28 ounce of recyclable paper after just 3 days.
At first, it felt like constant work to be aware of what was going in the trash that could be moved elsewhere, to monitor the electricity usage in the house, and to communicate my concerns with other members of my family. But it took less effort as the days went on. And while the changes I worked to implement in our household may seem small – sometimes they felt that way – the goal is that these simple changes in awareness will stay with us all even when we’re not home, and the hope is that others we spend time with will follow our example. It is that cumulative change among multiple people in multiple settings that can make a real impact going forward.